The Support Process Directed to Palestinian Refugee Women Who Are Victims of Gender-based Violence in the Palestinian Refugee Camps in Beirut

Sammanfattning: In 1948, Palestinians were expelled from their homeland Palestine then were forced to seek refuge in multiple countries including Lebanon. During their temporary stay, Palestinian refugee women began to experience serious problems like gender-based violence. Accordingly, a support process was established by distinct organizations and stakeholders in cooperation with the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs. Therefore, this explorative research study aims to explore and understand how and to what extent the available support services are serving refugee women victims of GBV while dwelling in one of the refugee camps (Mar Elias, Burj Al Barajneh, & Shatila camps) in Beirut. Three theories and one perspective related to the social work field helped in shaping this paper: the theory of feminist solidarity & the perspective of intersectionality (as a way of analyzing the intersectional power structures), street-level bureaucracy theory, and the human service organization’s theory. Face-to-face and online qualitative interviews were conducted with 9 stakeholders through strategic targeting meetings conducted beforehand. Two vignettes were utilized as a point of departure; they are a method that shapes the discussions “with pragmatic manipulation” related to examples with similar “characteristics/variables” aiming to navigate the interviewees' perspectives, ideologies, inputs, and views (McDonald, 2019; Converse, Barrett, Rich, and Reschovsky, 2015; Veloski, Tai, Evans, and Nash, 2005). The utilized vignettes in this study helped in answering the following esearch questions: (1) What are the organizations and the available services inside and outside the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut offered to the Palestinian refugee women victims of GBV? (2) What legal protection laws are available for Palestinian refugee women victims of GBV in Lebanon? (3) What does the support process look like and how does it interact with intersections of power structures such as class, legal status, and patriarchy? And (4) What can be done to enhance the support process to make it better for the Palestinian refugee women victims of GBV? During the analysis, four themes were constructed: Stakeholders’ Perspective on the support process, Legal Rights & Current Situation, Support Process & Levels of Trust in Different Actors, and Enhancing the Situation. Results showed that the overall support process is hindered by intersectional elements of patriarchy, bureaucracy, class distinction & financial independence, and religious affiliation, which allows only a few privileged women to attain legal support.